Akoustis Technologies, Inc. (Akoustis) focuses on developing, designing, and manufacturing innovative RF filter solutions for the wireless industry, including for products, such as smartphones and tablets, network infrastructure equipment, Wi-Fi Customer Premise Equipment (‘CPE’), and defense applications.
The company has developed a proprietary microelectromechanical system (‘MEMS’) based bulk acoustic wave (‘BAW’) technology and a unique manufacturing process flow, called ‘XBAW’, for the comp...
Akoustis Technologies, Inc. (Akoustis) focuses on developing, designing, and manufacturing innovative RF filter solutions for the wireless industry, including for products, such as smartphones and tablets, network infrastructure equipment, Wi-Fi Customer Premise Equipment (‘CPE’), and defense applications.
The company has developed a proprietary microelectromechanical system (‘MEMS’) based bulk acoustic wave (‘BAW’) technology and a unique manufacturing process flow, called ‘XBAW’, for the company’s filters produced for use in RF front-end (RFFE) modules. The company’s XBAW filters incorporate optimized high purity piezoelectric materials for high power, high frequency, and wide bandwidth operation. The company is developing RF filters for 5G, Wi-Fi, and defense bands using its proprietary resonator device models and product design kits (‘PDKs’). As the company qualifies its RF filter products, it is engaging with target customers to evaluate its filter solutions. The company’s initial designs target ultra-high-band (‘UHB’), sub-7 GHz 5G, Wi-Fi, and defense bands. The company expects its RF filter solutions will address problems, such as loss, bandwidth, power handling, and isolation, created by the growing number of frequency bands in the RFFE of mobile devices, infrastructure, and premise equipment to support 5G and Wi-Fi. The company has prototyped, sampled, and shipped its single-band low loss BAW filter designs for 5G frequency bands and 5 GHz and 6 GHz Wi-Fi bands, which are suited to competitive BAW solutions and historically cannot be addressed with low-band, lower power handling surface acoustic wave (‘SAW’) technology. Additionally, through its wholly owned subsidiary, RFM Integrated Device, Inc., a Texas corporation (‘RFMi’), of which the company acquired majority ownership in October 2021 and full ownership in April 2023, the company operates a fabless business whereby it makes sales of complementary SAW resonators, RF filters, crystal (‘Xtal’) resonators and oscillators, and ceramic products—addressing opportunities in multiple end markets, such as automotive and industrial applications. The company also offers back-end semiconductor supply chain services through its wholly owned subsidiary, Grinding and Dicing Services, Inc., a California corporation (‘GDSI’), which it acquired in January 2023.
The company owns and/or has filed applications for patents on the core resonator device technology, manufacturing facility, and intellectual property (‘IP’) necessary to produce its RF filter chips and operate as a ‘pure-play’ RF filter supplier, providing discrete filter solutions direct to Original Equipment Manufacturers (‘OEMs’) and aligning with the front-end module manufacturers that seek to acquire high performance filters to expand their module businesses.
Technology
The company’s device technology is based upon bulk-mode acoustic resonance, which is superior to surface-mode resonance for high-band and ultra-high-band (‘UHB’) applications that include 4G/LTE, 5G, Wi-Fi, and defense applications. Although some of its target customers utilize or manufacture the RFFE module, they may lack access to critical UHB filter technology that the company produces, which is necessary to compete in high frequency applications.
Manufacturing
The company manufactures Akoustis’ high-performance RF filter circuits, using its first generation XBAW wafer process, in its 125,000-square foot wafer-manufacturing facility located in Canandaigua, New York (the ‘New York Facility’), which it acquired in June 2017. The company’s SAW-based RF filter products are manufactured by a third party and sold either directly or through a sales distributor.
Intellectual Property
As of September 1, 2024, the company’s IP portfolio included 97 patents. Additionally, as of September 1, 2024, the company had 31 pending patent applications. These patents cover the company’s XBAW RF filter technology from raw materials through the system architectures. Given the significance of the company’s intellectual property to its business, the company enforces its intellectual property rights and protects its patent portfolio. The company considers protecting its intellectual property rights to be central to its business model and competitive position in the RF filter industry.
By designing, manufacturing, and marketing the company’s RF filter products to mobile phone OEMs, defense OEMs, network infrastructure OEMs, and Wi-Fi CPE OEMs, the company seeks to enable broader competition among the front-end module manufacturers.
The company expects to continue to incur substantial costs for commercialization of its technology on a continuous basis because its business model involves materials and solid-state device technology development and engineering of catalog and custom filter design solutions. To succeed across the company’s combined portfolio of Akoustis, XBAW, and RFMi products, the company must convince customers in a wide range of industries, including mobile phone OEMs, RFFE module manufacturers, network infrastructure OEMs, Wi-Fi CPE OEMs, medical device makers, automotive, and defense customers to use its products in their systems and modules. For example, since there are two dominant BAW filter suppliers in the industry that have high-band technology, and both utilize such technology as a competitive advantage at the module level, the company expects customers that lack access to high-band filter technology will be open to engage with it for XBAW filters.
To help drive the company’s XBAW filter business, the company plans to continue to pursue RF filter design and R&D development agreements and potentially joint ventures with target customers and other strategic partners, although it cannot guarantee it will be successful in these efforts. These types of arrangements may subsidize technology development costs and qualification, filter design costs, and offer complementary technology and market intelligence, and other avenues to revenue. However, the company intends to retain ownership of its core XBAW technology, intellectual property, designs, and related improvements. Across the company’s combined portfolio of Akoustis, XBAW, and RFMi products, as resources permit, the company expects to continue development of catalog designs for multiple customers and to offer such catalog products in multiple sales channels.
Recent Developments
On April 3, 2024, the company announced two new bandedge RF filter products for Wi-Fi Automotive and Access Point applications. These filters are expected to ramp into production in the second half of calendar year 2024.
On April 8, 2024, the company announced that its high-performance narrowband patented XBAW filters are being designed into a new program with an enterprise-class original equipment manufacturer (OEM).
On May 1, 2024, the company announced two design wins with a Tier-1 Network Infrastructure customer for two Wi-Fi 7 fixed wireless access enterprise and home gateway platforms.
On May 22, 2024, the company announced the final release to manufacturing of design updates across its product portfolio, which removed any patent features claimed by Qorvo in the U.S. Patent Nos. 7,522,018 and 9,735,755.
XBAW Filter Technology and Business
RF acoustic wave filters utilize piezoelectric material physical properties, the resonator device structure, and the manufacturing process technology. Existing BAW filters use an ‘acoustic wave ladder’ that is based on a monolithic topology approach using polycrystalline materials.
XBAW technology encompasses cutting-edge polycrystalline, single-crystal, and other high purity piezoelectric materials, which are fabricated into bulk-mode, acoustic wave resonators and RF filters. The company’s innovative piezoelectric materials contain high-purity Group III element nitride materials and possess a unique signature, which can be detected by conventional material metrology tools. The company utilizes analytical modeling techniques to aid in the design and internal manufacturing of its materials, whereby the raw substrate materials utilized in its XBAW process are sourced from a third party. Once the company’s filter designs are simulated and ready to manufacture, it supplies the NY Facility raw materials, a mask design file, and a unique process sequence to fabricate its resonators and filters. The company holds many issued and pending patents on its XBAW wafer process flow, which is compatible with wafer level packaging (WLP) that allows for low-profile, cost-effective filters to be produced.
XBAW Filter Solutions
The company’s XBAW filter business is focused on the commercialization of wide bandwidth RF filters operating in the high frequency spectrum known as the sub-8 GHz bands. Using the company’s XBAW technology, these filters enable new power amplifier duplexer (PAD) module or RFFE competition for high band modules, as well as performance-driven low band applications. Initially, the company expects to target select strategic RFFE market leaders, as well as tier two mobile phone OEMs and/or RFFE module suppliers. Longer term, the focus of the company’s XBAW filter business will be to expand its market share by engaging with additional mobile phone OEMs and RFFE module manufacturers. The company manufactures its XBAW wafers in its Canandaigua, NY fabrication facility, where it continues to focus on the commercialization of its filters using its XBAW technology. The company plans to continue, as resources permit, to develop a series of filter designs to be used in the manufacturing of discrete filters, duplexers, or more complex multiplexers targeting the 4G/LTE, 5G, Wi-Fi, automotive, and defense frequency bands.
Single-Band Discrete Designs, Duplexers, and Multiplexers
SAW filters are generally desired in modern RFFE because of their performance, small size, and low cost. However, traditional SAW ladder designs do not perform well in high frequency bands or bands with closely spaced receive and transmit channels, typical of many new bands. Therefore, BAW filters are preferred for these bands. In the NY Facility, the company fabricates BAW resonators, the building block of BAW filters, that offer high frequency, wide bandwidth, and high-power performance.
Pure-Play Filter Provider Enables New Module Competition
The company’s XBAW and XP3F technology allows for a wide range of frequency coverage, and it plans to supply XBAW filters that will support frequency bands from 2 to 20+ GHz for 4G/LTE, 5G, Wi-Fi, automotive, timing, defense, and future radio3 (‘FR3’) applications. The company has successfully demonstrated resonators and filters that will support the design and fabrication of 5G/LTE filters, Wi-Fi filters, and defense filters, with frequencies adjacent to the 5G mobile frequencies, in particular the N77, N78, and N79 bands. The company has transitioned its XBAW technology to high volume manufacturing with the target of being a pure-play filter supplier that will address the increasing RF complexity placed on RFFE manufacturers.
The company’s XP3F technology is expected to enable the new smartphone and wireless infrastructure requirements for FR3 and SATCOM applications, allowing integration of smaller size and less weight from the conventional technology.
Commercialization of XBAW Filters and Developmental XP3F Technology
The immediate focus of the company’s XBAW filter business is on the commercialization of wide bandwidth RF filters to address the Wi-Fi, Network Infrastructure, and Defense bands with innovative single-band designs using its XBAW sub-8 GHz RF filter technology. The company is currently developing commercial single-band XBAW filters through the NY Facility. The company is focused on developing fixed-band XBAW filters because these designs present the greatest near-term potential for commercialization of its technology.
The company’s technology development process consists of the following five phases: Pre-Alpha – Demonstrate basic feasibility/capabilities; Alpha – Develop stable recipe (Process freeze) with limited production development; Beta – Complete technology qualification (Process qualification) in factory to enable product design; Pre-Production – Demonstrate lead product production capabilities, release final design tools; and Production – Continual improvement of process and parametric performance.
The company has completed all phases for its first generation XBAW process technology called XB1. Additionally, it has received and delivered orders for pre-production products based on its XBAW process technology, and as of the end of fiscal 2024, the company had shipped more than 97 million XBAW filters to the 5G mobile, Wi-Fi, 5G infrastructure, and defense markets.
The company’s XP3F technology is in the ‘Beta’ phase, having successfully completed Phase 1 of its contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) COmpact Front end Filters as the ElEmental level (COFFEE) program as the only commercially viable filter to demonstrate success up to 20GHz. Akoustis is pursuing further government-funded projects and has been involved in more than 9 subsequent projects that are expected to be awarded to the selected bidders in the coming months. One of these project submissions is targeted at enabling communications during the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
Research and Development
The company’s research and development expense totaled $30.0 million for the year ended June 30, 2024.
The company concentrated on several products and end markets in fiscal 2024, including 5G mobile, Wi-Fi, CBRS, SATCOM, defense, and 5G infrastructure.
RFMi Technology and Business
RFMi is focused on supplying SAW and Xtal based frequency components to automotive, industrial IoT, medical, telecom, consumer, and other markets. The team designs, develops, and markets under RFMi-branded SAW band pass filters, notch filters, diplexers, duplexers, resonators, and delay lines, as well as Xtal resonators, temperature sensing Xtal resonators, temperature compensated crystal oscillators (‘TCXO’), voltage controlled temperature compensated crystal oscillators (‘VCTCXO’), crystal oscillators (‘XO’), voltage controlled crystal oscillators (‘VCXO’), oven controlled crystal oscillators (‘OCXO’), and Xtal filters, etc.
RFMi-branded Solutions for the RFMi Customers
RFMi is addressing jamming and high data rate problems by focusing on frequency components and supplying diverse and flexible SAW and Xtal products. In its operation spectrum (about 30MHz to 3GHz), SAW technology offers one of the highest Q factors. RFMi provides custom and standard SAW band pass filters to allow a signal spectrum to pass while rejecting the other signals, as well as a SAW diplexer with one input and two outputs, SAW duplexers that transmit and receive simultaneously for Frequency Division Duplex (‘FDD’) applications, and SAW resonators for high frequency transmitters, as well as custom delay lines. For Xtal products, instead of only supplying standard Xtal resonators at a few frequencies, RFMi provides a family of Xtal products and supports custom designs to accommodate a wider temperature range than standard products, stable frequency, and low jitter and phase noise.
GDSI Services and Business
GDSI supplies advanced back-end wafer processing and supply chain services to over 250 customers across multiple industries, including automotive, IoT, defense, medical, optical, and communications. Its services process multiple materials, including silicon, silicon carbide, silicon germanium, fused silica, quartz, alumina, ceramics, MEMS, optical filters and components, gallium nitride, and PZT.
GDSI-branded Solutions for GDSI Customers
GDSI offers wafer-thinning services for wafers up to 300 millimeters, die grinding, ultra-thin wafer grinding at greater than 50um, bonded wafers, and bumped wafers. The services offer tight tolerances for TTV and final thickness accuracy, 3DICs/TSV with via reveal or grinding into interposer, DBG for ultra-thin die or increased die strength. GDSI also offers wafer polishing services for wafers up to 200 millimeters using a chemical mechanical polish with a mirror finish with a Ra<10A, increased die strength, reduced warpage, and which removes sub-surface damage. The division also offers a stealth dicing process for wafers up to 300 millimeters, which is a completely dry process with frontside and backside processing capability for wafers with a thickness range of 75um to 800um. Additionally, GDSI can offer coring services, device pick-and-place, and automated inspection services.
RFMi Supply Chain
RFMi mainly relies on its contract manufacturer, Tai-Saw Technology Co., Ltd. (‘TST’), to source raw materials, such as different chemicals and gases for front and back-end manufacturing, quartz, lithium tantalate, and certain bonded wafers, metal targets, Xtal blanks, semiconductor ICs, aluminum bonding wires, and flip chip gold stub bump supplies, packages, and lids. Most raw materials have dual or multi-sources. However, certain materials, e.g., high temperature co-fired ceramic (‘HTCC’) ceramic packages, bonded wafers, and automotive grade TCXO/VCTCXO ICs are single-sourced, as there is no alternative supplier, or the alternative supplier does not guarantee automotive grade materials. Many of RFMi’s customers are automotive and require a Production Part Approval Process (‘PPAP’), where using an alternative source may require re-PPAP and take efforts and time. RFMi intends to diversify its supply chain; however, it takes time and resources. Certain raw materials, like HTCC ceramic packages, may not have a second source for the foreseeable future.
Intellectual Property
In the United States and internationally, as of September 01, 2024, the company’s IP portfolio included 97 patents, including one blocking patent that it has licensed from Cornell University. Additionally, the company has 31 active and pending patent applications. These patents cover the company’s XBAW RF filter technology from the substrate level through the system application layer. The company’s owned patents expire between 2034 and 2040.
Government Regulations
The company’s business and products in development are or may become subject to regulation by various federal and state governmental agencies, including the radio frequency emission regulatory activities of the Federal Communications Commission (the ‘FCC’), the consumer protection laws of the Federal Trade Commission (the ‘FTC’), the import/export regulatory activities of the Department of Commerce, international traffic in arms regulations (ITAR) administered by the Department of State, the product safety regulatory activities of the Consumer Products Safety Commission, and the environmental regulatory activities of the Environmental Protection Agency (the ‘EPA’).
The company’s RF filters, as a key element enabling consumer electronic smartphone equipment, are required to comply with these FCC rules and may require certification, verification, or registration of its RF filters with the FCC.
Like the company’s XBAW products, RFMi’s SAW and Xtal products are frequency components and are subject to similar FCC rules. For instance, many of RFMi’s customers operate in ISM (Industrial, Scientific, and Medical) band, MICS (Medical Implant Communication System), WMTS (Wireless Medical Telemetry Service), and other bands regulated by the FCC, in which transmission power level is restricted, and products have to pass the FCC, and in certain cases FDA certification to be allowed in the market.
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